Is It Just Me?

In the past few weeks, I've been very busy working to finish and edit, Lost and Found. During this time, I've realized a few things about myself, and most are not flattering. This post isn't about writing today, but I thought I would share, only in hope you would comment and tell me I'm not as unfit to take care of others or myself as I feel.

During the holidays, I had 11 days off from work. I tried to stay busy writing and relaxing. My husband and I had a chance to take a trip to Las Vegas to unwind. Man, do I love Vegas. I realize now, during those 11 days off, why I do not have children, nor am I fit to take care of my two cats or myself...kinda. Below are the things that opened my eyes to the fact:

• Looking at my Christmas list (yes, I still make a list) and the gifts I received, they resembled Christmas for a 16 year old, not a 29 year old. It included 2 CDs, a video game (Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii. This game freaking rocks! Any AC fans out there?), three books (two of them YA books), an external 250 gig hard drive (for my iTunes library), a package of 2 new iSkins Slims (I love these...I have the Claro case for my iPod Classic and it works fab if you're in the market for something like this), a slipcase for my new Macbook and a Moleskine journal (if you haven't tried a Moleskine and you're as addicted to journals/notebooks as I am, it's a must).
• I run home every night, despite my busy schedule, to play Animal Crossing so I can water my turnip. I mean, come on, it's worth 16,000 bells!
• While in Vegas, I bought a few things: An Uglydoll, a Harry Potter beanie (toque to our Canadian friends) and a new pair of Converse that are white with small black polka dots and red ladybugs.
• One of the hotel rooms we stayed in while in Vegas had two bathrooms. Yes, that's right...TWO BATHROOMS. My husband and I used both at the same time...just because we could. I had a huge urge to jump on the bed and do cartwheels in the center of the floor, giggling the whole time.
• I had a candle burning on the coffee table the other day. One of the cats, always curious, went up to smell it and got too close. She proceeded to singe an eyebrow off and is now lopsided. I don't know if this makes me a really bad kitty parent, or makes her a really stupid cat. Sadly, she's the smart one out of our two "kids".
• I don't think I took a shower/changed out of my pjs before noon the whole time I was off of work.
• When I looked in my refrigerator on Christmas, I realized we still had a turkey leg stuck in the back from Thanksgiving. It was really sad looking...and gray.

So, please share and make me feel normal! Am I still a 16 year old living in a 29 year old's body?

Writing Spaces, Memories and Inspiration

A lot of writers can tell you off the top of their head the person or people who really got them started writing. Sometimes it's a relative, another writer, a friend, some sort of profound experience.

For me, like many wonderful things in my life, it all comes back to my Grandmother.

For the past few weeks, I've been moving into her former home. At first, I thought it was going to be a depressing thing--filling the shelves with my books and movies mixed with hers, cooking in the kitchen where I learned how to cook, watching movies in the space where I learned how to act, feeding her ancient cats who yowl at me and try to sleep on top of my head. 

But as every shelf got filled, the ache in my heart lessened just a little. And when I finally settled my stuff down and set my desk up in the room where she opened my eyes up to the beauty of words, the room where she gave me my first bit of writing advice at age 6 (always start a book with an attention grabbing first sentence. You have to suck the reader in immediately), I felt greatly comforted. 

It's weird, how places can inspire you and drive you and make you remember things that you have forgotten.

So now I write in a living room that was once a sort of class room for me. A room that shaped my life and my dreams. A room that truly does hold the best memories of my life and I find the space incredibly inspiring and motivating. With the books on the shelves, hers mixed with mine, and the familiar yowl of her cats, I can believe, for a moment, that's she's beside me. And she's probably laughing about the enormous plot hole that I can't figure out how to fill. 

Character Actions: How Do Your Characters Score?

One of the most challenging aspects of writing is keeping it fresh – especially in terms of character actions during dialogue, etc. In a first draft, my stuff is filled with characters crossing their arms, raising eyebrows, rolling their eyes and shaking their heads. Nothing wrong with these actions, but if they are all you can produce – your readers will get bored and your characters will be flat, flat, flat.

This weekend I accompanied my basketball coach husband and his grade 9-10 team on a tournament outside of Calgary – a six hour bus trip there AND back. It was fun. The guys were big goofs and I took the opportunity to do what any YA fiction writer – without kids of her own - would do – I took notes.

During the weekend I watched how the kids interacted, how they made fun of each other, helped each other, and how they moved through the world. I now have pages of “teen” actions to choose from – some are unusual, some are funny and some are even a bit sad. And yes, I did see the crossed arms, rolling eyes, sure I did – and that’s why I’m not saying you should cut every single one, but put your observational skills to work and find some nifty body language. It’s out there.

On a scale of 1 (total clicheville) to 10 (original/quirky) how do your character's actions score?

From the Pitching Mound: Writing a Successful Pitch

This week I had to do something I had yet to do in my writing career. I had to write a pitch for my current book, Lost and Found. How was I supposed to summarize 80,000 words in a few short sentences? I’ve always wondered how some authors could pitch their stories with easy and confidence, the words sounding like they came straight from the jacket flap. It's like having to climb up on a pitching mound in front of thousands of people and throw that first pitch. Hard? Of course! Doable? For sure!

Luckily, I had the help of Author X, a friend of YAedge. “Conflict,” she told me. “The conflict of your story is the key.”

Conflict. Couldn’t be too hard, right? Actually, I sat there, even though I know my plot so well, and couldn’t even tell her exactly what my conflict was at first. Then I thought of my main characters, Madison and Pence, and what their purpose is in the story. I realized I needed to explain not only the conflict, but also their purpose.

Quickly, I jotted down a few sentences. I came up with the conflict and plot in a nutshell, but it was missing the WOW factor. It was drab, boring. It needed a hook, something to grab an agent’s attention.

Author X took what I wrote and used her magic. She pulled in aspects of my story that didn’t even occur to me. The traits and personality of my characters shone through in four short sentences. With a few tweaks from myself and Tracy, I now have something that WOWs (or at least I think so).

The next time I have to write a pitch and/or query, I don’t think I’ll be able to do it with ease and grace, but at least I’ll know where to start. It’s all about the conflict.

Batter up!

The Princess Diaries--a thank you.

Ten or so years ago, I picked up a bright pink book in the bookstore. It wasn't the kind of thing that I normally would get--at 12 I was vehemently opposed to the color pink just for the sake of it. But I liked the book-flap, so I made my Dad buy it for me. (At 12, my Dad was the easiest person to bribe into buying me books. The man has bought me about 50 % of my library throughout the years--thanks Dad). 

I was awkward at 12. Hell, I was awkward through all my teen years and I still have my many moments at 22. I spent a lot of time writing in notebooks and ignoring other people (still do, but I've gotten better about apologizing for it). I was gawky and unsure of myself and generally said the wrong thing at the wrong time and ended up agonizing over my mistakes. I felt like a complete and total freak.

I'm telling y'all this because when I say that Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries books changed my life as well as my writing, I want to be clear that I am totally 100% serious about that statement.

I just finished Forever Princess, the last book in the series, and I fully admit that I cried through the last 100 pages out of pure sentimentality. For me, this is an end of an era, practically the end of my teenagerdom. This is the finish of books that I've faithfully read for 10 years, books I have read over and over again when I've had a bad day or a bad date or a bad ANYTHING at all. These are the books that, as a teenager, made me feel a little less freakish and awkward. Mia was like a friend--someone I could relate to on so many levels.  I loved her adventures and I loved the way she saw the world, because it was so much like the way I saw it as a teen. 

I bought the first book when it just came out--before the movies, before it hit the best-sellers list. I loved it so much that I instantly started tracking down anything else that Meg Cabot had written (her historical romances especially, because who doesn't love feisty girls in corsets?). I also wrote Meg herself and she ended up doing an interview for my teen e-zine, unladylike. She signed books for us and was such a wonderful, nice author and that's always really stuck with me.

What also has stuck with me is my sheer admiration for Meg Cabot as a writer and as a person. Not only is she wildly successful and has a career that all us YA writers dream about, but she has written several books and donated the proceeds to charity. She's a wonderful, imaginative writer whose ability to cross over genres I really envy.

Thank you, Meg, for letting us share Mia's world. The awkward 12 year old girl inside me thanks you from the bottom of my heart. You made my teenaged years much easier and your books inspired me to write YA. They made me think outside the children's book box--to think about characters who were going through real and fantastical things at the same time. Characters who were like real teenagers.

I'm grateful, because I'm not sure I'd be writing this if I hadn't, by chance, relinquished my hatred for the color pink and picked up that book 10 years ago.

Ah…Booktrailers.

I decided to plug a few of the titles currently on my TBR shelf or on my can’t-wait-to-read list. Okay – here we go. (Warning, I read a ton of YA paranormal stuff.)

TBR List Trailers:

Parties and Potions by Sarah Mlynowski. This was the winner at the 2008 Teen Book Video Awards. This award goes to student filmmakers who create trailers for upcoming books.



The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong – there was a trailer for this on Youtube but it had no backing music ?? so I wasn’t sure if it was the official trailer and didn’t post it, but there is a cute site for the main character: http://www.chloesaunders.com/

Soulless by Christopher Golden - gotta love those zombies.



Love, Meg by C. Leigh Purtill – hey it’s not paranormal!




Can’t Wait to Read’m Trailers:

Evermore by Alyson Noel - looks magical.



Freaksville by Kitty Keswick - coming soon from The Wild Rose Press. I'm currently reading the galleys and loving it.



Got any awesome trailers we should be watching?

Eye of the Tiger- A look to the new year

Most people set out at the start of a new year with some kind of resolution. New Year’s Day is for hopes and dreams to seem like they could become reality in the coming year, and they can!

Yesterday I put my 2008 journal on the shelf for good. It was ratty around the edges, holding memories of a roller coaster year. 2008 brought me a layoff from my job that was happily accepted, a book finished and another book start (which is now officially half way written…WOOT), a great critique group, and a new job. Overall, 2008 was a good year. I didn’t hit all of my resolution goals, but feel success in the ones I accomplished.

A start of the new year feels clean as I crack open a new journal, looking at the fresh pages and thinking about how I’d like to see 2009 unfold. I hope to finish Lost and Found, my WIP, by January 31. I want to edit it and submit to at least a handful of agents. I look forward to starting a new book, coming up with new ideas. I would like to beat last year’s number of books read (71), but that may be hard to do. The great thing is, right now, anything seems possible.

What do you plan for the new year?

Going through my database of books read in 2008 (yes, I keep track. I am that big of a nerd), I thought it would be fun to share with you my top 5 favorite YA books I read this year. I won’t put them in order, just the group of 5.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
How to be Bad by E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski and Lauren Myracle
Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen
Paper Towns by John Green
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

What were your favorite YA books read in 2008?